


Coeus (Prologue)

by areyouarealmonster



Series: Coeus [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: ColdAtom Week 2017, M/M, Soulmates, They're not each other's soulmate, This is not really a soulmate au but it also kind of is?, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-06 07:11:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11031204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyouarealmonster/pseuds/areyouarealmonster
Summary: Coeus(kee-ous): In Greek Mythology, Coeus was the Titan who represented rational intelligence.Also, the Time Masters' chief strategist after the explosion of the Oculus Wellspring.





	Coeus (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> ColdAtom Week 2017 Day #5: Soulmates AU
> 
> This is the start of a larger 'verse.

Leonard is destined to be alone. Ever since he was old enough to know what the maps on people’s skin were, he’s known that his lack of a map is _wrong_.

 

People have told him that it doesn’t mean he’s going to be alone forever, that not everyone truly ends up with their soulmate, that some people never find their soulmate. That even having a map doesn’t guarantee that your soulmate ever made it past childhood, ever made it out of the womb.

 

Leonard doesn’t believe them. He never did, not even when he was too young to truly understand the impact.

 

It was just one more thing for his father to use against him, one more thing to add to the list of reasons why Leonard Snart will never amount to anything, why he’ll always be a failure.

 

“Didn’t even get made right,” his father would mutter. “Won’t even be able to find some poor sucker to love him.”

 

Leonard meets a few people without maps, over his life, but they’re all glad of it. They’re all aromantic, and while Leonard can appreciate that, he is most definitely not. His best friend, Mick, doesn’t have a map for that reason.

 

But Leonard has never met anyone who wants to find love and doesn’t have a map. He debates getting a tattoo—all thin black lines and curved streets, bleeding out at the edges. There are tattoo parlors specifically for adding on to maps, to growing them and extending them further out into the blank expanses of skin.

 

He doesn’t.

 

As he grows up and discards lovers like used tissues, he thinks maybe he’s the lucky one. He goes into relationships with the advantage—with the knowledge that it’s going to end, that he’s going to leave them. Other people go into relationships with people who aren’t their soulmates—and sometimes _with_ their soulmates—thinking that it’s going to last forever and they’re crushed when it crashes and burns.

 

Leonard never gets crushed, never lets himself get in too deep. He always pulls back first, always is the one to say, “We should stop seeing each other, this isn’t going to end well for either of us.”

 

It’s easier that way.

 

It’s safer that way.

 

“Don’t ever let anyone hurt you.” That’s the motto. That’s the dream.

 

Leonard is satisfied. He’s lonely, but he’s made his peace with it.

 

That is, until Ray Palmer saves his life.

 

* * *

 

Ray’s soulmate dies.

 

He’s heard stories about it. He’s watched documentaries, late at night on Netflix, with his soulmate. With _Anna_.

 

She dies, she _dies_ , and Ray is alone.

 

He falls into his tech, his company, his super-suit. He falls into depression. He falls into Felicity, into Kendra, into anyone and everything that can keep him from spiraling, from remembering that he’s alone, now. That he’s got nobody.

 

And nobody looks closer, nobody checks deeper, everyone sees the sunny smiles and the jokes and assumes that he’s fine. That he’s not hurting.

 

Ray can’t stop losing; he can’t stop falling in love and in deeper into his own thoughts, his own misery. He loves and loses Felicity, to Oliver. He loves and loses Kendra, to Carter. He loves—no, he _almost_ loves Leonard, and loses him anyway.

 

What’s the point, though?

 

What do you do when your map, which should always lead you home, turns into a dead end? What’s the point in living, in staying alive, when you’ve found and lost your soulmate?

 

If Ray had an answer, maybe he could be happy.

 

And when he finds his answer, when he finds his happiness, it’s nothing like what he’d expected.

 

* * *

 

It all starts on a rooftop.

 

No, that’s not it.

 

It starts on a rooftop, it starts in a cage surrounded by precious artifacts, it starts in Russia with a gun and a button, pushed. It starts and it stutters to a stop with a near-death experience, a smile, and a kiss. The smile and the kiss aren’t from the same person, and therein lies the problem. It starts with a gunshot, with the tip of a hat, with an ending.

 

It starts with an ending.

 

Leonard Snart dies at the Oculus Wellspring, and Ray can’t remember feeling like that in years, not since—not since Anna died. It doesn’t make sense, because he and Leonard weren’t even _close_ , not at the end at least.

 

It starts with an ending because it’s not until Leonard Snart dies that Ray realizes he could have loved the man.

 

It starts with an ending because when Leonard Snart comes back the first time, he’s not the same person Ray knew. He’s younger and colder and he kills without hesitation, and Ray wants to hate him. Leonard Snart drives an icicle through Mick’s heart, and Ray wishes he could muster up an ounce of hatred.

 

It’s not that he doesn’t care for Mick; he does, and he’s glad Mick survived—their Mick, not the Mick who lived through another year, the one already destined to die—but Ray just can’t bring himself to hate Leonard. Not after everything.

 

It starts with an ending because Leonard Snart comes back broken.

 

It starts with Leonard not dying at the Oculus explosion, because he didn’t die, because the Oculus cradled him in the eye of the storm.

 

It starts with the Time Masters fishing Leonard out of the hurricane of time and dragging him to their secondary base.

 

It starts with Coeus.

 

* * *

 

The chair.

 

Leonard had heard about it from Mick, in off-hand comments and muttered curses.

 

He’d never thought it would be pain like this. He never thought it would feel like his entire insides wanted to burst from his body, never thought that his mind would feel like a forest fire, blazing bright behind his eyes.

 

He aches for ice. He aches for a cool breeze, a breath of air, the freezing depths of space.

 

The Time Masters continue on.

 

Slowly, slowly, Leonard fades away. The last bit of light winks out from his gaze, and he turns colder than he ever wanted to.

 

He becomes a weapon. Coeus. Not a bounty hunter, nothing so _blunt_ for him, no. He becomes their master strategist, able to look at all the options and pick the best path, regardless of loss of life. The Time Masters lost a lot with the loss of the Oculus Wellspring, but Coeus helps. They slowly regain power, quietly, stealthily.

 

And the Legends remain unaware.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the coldatomies chat for beta-ing and providing love and support and ilu all!
> 
> feel free to come yell at me on [tumblr](http://snartbaiting.tumblr.com)


End file.
